Welcome to the American Literature class wiki for this semester's Literary Criticism Paper!
What is a Literary Criticism Research Paper?
It is an understanding, application, and synthesis of the different critical approaches to literature that enable, broaden and deepen the understanding and interpretation of a text. What is a critical approach? A critical approach is basically an investigative and analytical questioning about a work of literature. [We critically approach literature each unit in our classroom discussions. For example, when we discussed what Fitzgerald intended when he wrote about the parties at Gatsby’s house, one of the approaches we were utilizing was the historical/biographical approach. When we ask, “Which characters are you in greatest sympathy?”, we are using the rhetorical approach.] How many critical approaches are there? We begin by discussing early critics [Plato and Aristotle] and then there are eleven critical approaches to literature.
Moral/Philosophical
Historical/biographical
Formalist
Rhetorical
Freudian
Archetypal
Marxist
Feminist
Deconstructionist
Reader Response
New Historical
What is the Purpose of being able to identify, understand, apply, and interpret using critical perspectives and theory? Different critical perspectives produce very different approaches to texts and generate very different questions about them. When critical theory remains relatively unexplained, students have difficulty developing a coherent framework for contemplating the field of literary study and the individual pieces within it. Understanding and being able to use different approaches will enlighten interpretation as well as build confidence for your interpretation of text. Moving from Formal Analysis to Critical Synthesis… You have been engaged in formal analysis of literary texts within your classroom experiences, your writing assignments, and your assigned targeting of reading strategies. The questions asked, the discussions facilitated, and the prompts given are designed to promote, guide, and help you to shape your analysis of literary texts.
In all of these student experiences, you were invited through formal analysis to stand outside of a work of literature and observe how the textual elements functioned as parts of the whole. Critical synthesis takes a further step back from the text to look at the whole field of literary study.
Critical Synthesis will invite you to think about the way you think [metacognition] when you are forming interpretation of a text and discovering how you got to that final conclusion. If you are curious, can pose critical questions about the ground rules for a good interpretation, and are moving to metacognition perspectives, you are ready and able to tackle this assignment. We need to get you there as a college bound student. SO……
Literary criticism is fundamentally an informed analysis and evaluation of a work of literature.
Literary criticism can be applied to novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and essays.
Helpful Resources….Our class notes will be a survey of the early critics and the eleven schools of literary criticism. We begin with a description of two of the earliest critics of literature, Plato and Aristotle, and then describe a few basic theoretical principles and characteristic techniques of each of these eleven schools. Each has many and varied practitioners. For a fuller explanation of these schools specifically and literary theory and criticism generally, here are some resources that would assist you. Books
Abrams, M. A Glossary of Literary Terms (6th ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993. Print.
Groden, M. & Kreiswirth, M. (Eds.). The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory and criticism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994. Print.
Macey, D. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Welcome to the American Literature class wiki for this semester's Literary Criticism Paper!
What is a Literary Criticism Research Paper?
It is an understanding, application, and synthesis of the different critical approaches to literature that enable, broaden and deepen the understanding and interpretation of a text.What is a critical approach?
A critical approach is basically an investigative and analytical questioning about a work of literature. [We critically approach literature each unit in our classroom discussions. For example, when we discussed what Fitzgerald intended when he wrote about the parties at Gatsby’s house, one of the approaches we were utilizing was the historical/biographical approach. When we ask, “Which characters are you in greatest sympathy?”, we are using the rhetorical approach.]
How many critical approaches are there?
We begin by discussing early critics [Plato and Aristotle] and then there are eleven critical approaches to literature.
What is the Purpose of being able to identify, understand, apply, and interpret using critical perspectives and theory?
Different critical perspectives produce very different approaches to texts and generate very different questions about them. When critical theory remains relatively unexplained, students have difficulty developing a coherent framework for contemplating the field of literary study and the individual pieces within it. Understanding and being able to use different approaches will enlighten interpretation as well as build confidence for your interpretation of text.
Moving from Formal Analysis to Critical Synthesis…
You have been engaged in formal analysis of literary texts within your classroom experiences, your writing assignments, and your assigned targeting of reading strategies. The questions asked, the discussions facilitated, and the prompts given are designed to promote, guide, and help you to shape your analysis of literary texts.
In all of these student experiences, you were invited through formal analysis to stand outside of a work of literature and observe how the textual elements functioned as parts of the whole. Critical synthesis takes a further step back from the text to look at the whole field of literary study.
Critical Synthesis will invite you to think about the way you think [metacognition] when you are forming interpretation of a text and discovering how you got to that final conclusion. If you are curious, can pose critical questions about the ground rules for a good interpretation, and are moving to metacognition perspectives, you are ready and able to tackle this assignment. We need to get you there as a college bound student. SO……Literary criticism is fundamentally an informed analysis and evaluation of a work of literature.
Literary criticism can be applied to novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and essays.
Helpful Resources….Our class notes will be a survey of the early critics and the eleven schools of literary criticism. We begin with a description of two of the earliest critics of literature, Plato and Aristotle, and then describe a few basic theoretical principles and characteristic techniques of each of these eleven schools. Each has many and varied practitioners. For a fuller explanation of these schools specifically and literary theory and criticism generally, here are some resources that would assist you.
Books
- Abrams, M. A Glossary of Literary Terms (6th ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993. Print.
- Groden, M. & Kreiswirth, M. (Eds.). The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory and criticism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994. Print.
- Macey, D. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Websites